


Reciprocity

by Aryagraceling



Series: Catharsis [24]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Bombing, Burns, But not real descriptive, Explicit Consent, Exploration, F/M, Feelings Realization, It's fucking in tents, Kakashi's emotional constipation, Major Character Injury, Masturbation, Missions Gone Wrong, Outdoor Sex, Resolved Sexual Tension, Snark, Tender Sex, These two are the true meaning of disasters I swear, accelerated healing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-03-17 01:01:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18954748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aryagraceling/pseuds/Aryagraceling
Summary: On a mission gone wrong, one thing goes right.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Smut coming (ha [ ~~don't let my puns fool you I'm somewhat cool~~ ]) in pt. 2

Kakashi doesn’t truly care for fighting. He prefers missions where stealth is paramount, blood on the trees a testament to failure instead of success. Crimson stains, if he’s being honest, have scared him from an early age. They stir up a visceral feeling of disgust and even being the shinobi he is, he does his best to avoid it. He hides his distaste behind the excuses of diseases, infections, and a general need of cleanliness of uniform, but some days--the days where violence is unavoidable--he washes it from his skin with a wrinkled nose and the hope he won’t smell it for the next week.

Today is one of those days. Tsunade’s sent him on another simple retrieval mission with Sakura. It’s really a one-person job, a simple in-and-out to Kumo. With the newfound peace, there’s no reason Hatake Kakashi needs another person with him on the journey. It could be worse, he supposes as he begins setting up camp. He could be stuck with Kotetsu or Genma or Naruto, insistent chattering filling the forest and alerting everyone around to their presence.

Instead, he has Sakura and her unique brand of quiet. 

That quiet is disturbed by a yell and a crack that sounds disturbingly like a spine. He’s immediately on guard, rushing in the direction of the scuffle with a kunai in one hand and several poison-tipped senbon in the other. The scene is familiar--Sakura standing with one arm outstretched, feet wide and breathing hard with a growl etched on her face. “Try it again,” she pants at the trembling missing-nin before her. “I dare you.”

“Sakura--” Kakashi starts, and he sees her eyes widen just before she ducks, a kunai flying just over her head to embed itself in the missing-nin’s forehead. His gaze flies to the source, a flash in the trees that he starts after immediately. “On me!”

He’s been on enough missions with her to know she will obey. She’ll back him up, patch him up, fuck him up if he so much as steps out of line. She’d do the same to anyone, and Kakashi is grateful for that as he watches her sprint beside him with fire in her eyes. The person ahead looks back, trips on a branch buried in the ground, and holds his hands in front of him for a false sense of protection as they stop over him.

“Looking for easy money?” Sakura asks, voice cloyingly sweet as she twirls a shuriken around her finger. “Saw a pretty girl alone in the woods and figured she couldn’t do anything against two kind men saving her?”

The man’s face twists. “You’re not that special,” he spits. “Try again.”

“You  _ did  _ make it into the bingo book,” Kakashi points out.

“So two men thought they could take  _ me,  _ of all people,” Sakura says. She steps over the man and pins his wrists to the forest floor with her feet when he attempts scrambling away. “Kakashi-sensei, I don’t think they thought that through.”

“Maa, Sakura, get on with it.” Kakashi continuously scans for others,  _ positive  _ they couldn’t be so stupid as to believe two people could take on two of Konoha’s strongest. “I’d like to rest sooner, rather than later.” There’s got to be  _ something  _ wrong here, and as the man grunts in pain, Kakashi huffs in frustration. “I didn’t teach you to play with your prisoners.”

“You didn’t teach me what it meant to be in the bingo book either,” she says, “but here we are.”

Kakashi rolls his eyes. He should have, he’s known for years she would end up there eventually. You don’t reach her caliber and  _ not  _ grace the infamous pages. “Regardless, you should hurry up. You never know where their friends are, and I’d rather just take him to Kumo and be done with it.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Effortlessly, she kneels and flips the man below her, fishing in her flak jacket for a length of rope. “No, down,” she says, grinding her palm into the man’s head and shoving his face in the dirt. “You don’t get to fight anymore.”

She brushes Kakashi’s helping hand off when she stands, dragging the man’s arms up and him along with it. “No need to be rude,” he grumbles. He keeps the handful of senbon at the ready as they begin back to their campsite, their prisoner unable to look at his comrade’s body along the way. “Should’ve considered the consequences before putting your pocketbook ahead of judgement,” Kakashi says, frowning. “But who else is going to feed the wildlife, I suppose…”

“Kakashi.” Sakura stops short, and Kakashi along with her as the campsite comes into view. There’s broken branches around the perimeter, swaying in the breeze as he readies himself. “Those weren’t you, were they?”

“Would I be so careless?” At the edges of his consciousness, there’s a faint buzzing, a quiet whine that sets his teeth to grinding as it only grows. “Sakura…” The buzzing keeps on, and from the corner of his eye he sees the tell-tale sparks of a tag set on their half-pitched tent. “Get down!” he yells. She obeys, and he doesn’t have time to feel guilty over the terror in the missing-nin’s eyes as he drags the man down on top of them as a shield.

The blast consumes them. A vortex of hellfire envelops them, searing through fabric to skin and engulfing their heads in cotton when it leaves. The forest  _ spins  _ when Kakashi raises his gaze, blinking hard at the burn marks on the trees around them. There’s a vague feeling of heaviness, stickiness, but it’s pushed aside to the question of how he’s going to get Sakura out of here before this happens again. 

He shuts his eyes and tries to concentrate on getting his arm around her shoulders, but he soon learns that moving means more stickiness and worse--pain. He tries again anyway. There’s no way he’s allowing missing-nin to get the better of them, not this close to their objective. He won’t allow their heads to be collected for a bounty. “Get up,” he distantly hears himself rasp. “You need to go.”

_ Stupid,  _ so fucking  _ stupid _ to let it slip past him. He grunts as Sakura begins to writhe below him, doing her best to push him and the dead nin to the side. Kakashi  _ hopes  _ he’s dead, because he’s pretty sure the stickiness means blood and losing enough blood that Kakashi’s soaked in it isn’t a good sign. 

“Kakashi,” Sakura gasps, sliding free. She attempts to get up and stumbles, falling to her knees to reach for his face. “Kakashi, get up. Get  _ up.”  _

He’s  _ trying,  _ but he can’t find the words in his scrambled head to get that across so he settles for grabbing her hand instead. All breath leaves him in a panicked whine when she pulls and he feels the ragged edges of his uniform scrape over skin that  _ shouldn’t  _ hurt. “What…”

“You idiot,” she says. Her eyes are watering when he looks up at her, her lip quivering, but her voice is steady as she instructs him to sit  _ up,  _ for the love of all that is holy, Kakashi. “I’m fine. Don’t worry. I’m all right.” 

“Crying--” is all he manages before faceplanting in her lap. Frantic hands make quick work of his vest, and a kunai takes care of his shirt. There’s not even time for a protest as his mask is torn away and he’s sat up with the front of his shoulder pressed to a tree. “That hurts,” he hisses at the touch of her hand. “Get off me.”

“Stop it,” she whispers. 

He feels the chakra gathering in the air before it’s being pushed into his skin. It’s supposed to help, he knows, but in the moment all that matters is scrambling away from the glow bringing the haze of pain further around him. He  _ shudders  _ as she leans closer, breathing hot on the back of his neck. His nails dig into the bark, and as soon as it starts, she finishes with a litany of curses.

“We need to get you to the city,” she says. “Stay here.” 

He’d think about moving if he didn’t think he’d retch. The tilt of his head to the left to see blackened skin surrounding the mottled red of a burn has his head spinning again, and his stomach very nearly  _ does  _ expel itself onto the leaves at the sight of fallen needles and other debris caked in his wounds. 

_ Stupid. _

Sakura mutters as she searches for her medical pack in the ruins. She mutters when she can’t find it, and she mutters as she helps Kakashi up to lean heavily on her. “I need you to do something for me, okay, Kakashi?”

He’s having the hardest time focusing on anything besides the way her shoulder is soft below his cheek.

_ “Kakashi,”  _ she insists, pinching the unburnt skin of his wrist to bring him back. “How’s your chakra, honey? How much do you have?”

“Honey,” he mumbles. It’s strange, dripping from her lips. He latches onto it, holds onto it with hands that have seen too much to carry its light properly. “Honey…”

“Fuck,” she says through gritted teeth. 

He snorts, and she’s unimpressed.

“I need you to focus, Kakashi. Can you get yourself to Kumo, or do I need to bring a team back?” 

Kakashi tries taking a few wobbling steps forward and fails. He clutches at her vest, dragging it down along with her as he collapses. “I can…”

“You can’t,” she says as realization sets in. Her hands are cold on his face as she drags his eyes to hers. “You need to stay here, Kakashi.  _ Here,  _ in this spot. Do not move. Can you do that for me?”

“Sure,” he coughs. “H-honey.”

The seconds between when she flits away and when the Kumo team returns are  _ long.  _ He wonders if he’ll survive. He got to say something nice before the end, at least. If she couldn’t heal him-- _ her,  _ of all people--this might actually be it. Really, he’s a fool. He’s spent more time with her than anyone else on the team, and still he can’t bring himself to ask her if she could possibly want the same things. 

_ Honey.  _

He moans as he bends forward, forearms settling on the ground and ruined back stretching. He knits his fingers together and raises them the best he can before he, the Copy-nin of Konoha who’s more likely to kill than kiss you, rasps out a prayer to whatever god is listening. He prays against what he’s asked for years.

_ “Let me live.” _

**

The medical team puts Sakura in a bed next to Kakashi’s, to her relief. She says she’s not wounded enough but the staff insist, so she occupies her time by mulling Kakashi’s words over and over as she watches him breathe.  _ Let me live. _ It was supposed to be easy. Simple. A quick run there and back, and now here they are, healing instead of helping. 

She scrubs her hands over her eyes. Her injuries were able to heal enough on her own, didn’t need further care. Kakashi’s, though… “Fucking idiot,” she whispers around the lump in her throat. “Putting yourself in danger like that.”

A necessity, she knows. 

_ Protect your healer. _

She doesn’t know why he latched on so quickly to honey. In the moment it had just slipped as it would for any patient, but unlike any patient, Kakashi had said it back. More than once. Kinder than necessary. She’d say loving, but with a crater blasted in his back she wasn’t certain he was anywhere near his right mind.

Sakura sighs. She’s exhausted. She’s hurting. She’s confused. She’s angry, worried, and  _ fixating  _ on how she nearly lost the person she’s become closest to in recent months. With all the things she’s seen in hospitals and on the battlefields, she hadn’t expected the sight of Kakashi’s weeping back to haunt her sleep.

She’s frustrated, and Kakashi seems unlikely to wake anytime soon for answers. Mulling it over and over is doing no good, so she swings her feet over the side of the bed and gets up to find something to do. There’s a few books on the shelf in the corner that she’s got no interest in, nothing good on the tv. She flicks through the channels mindlessly, over and over, until she hears movement from the bed.

“Leave it,” she thinks she hears Kakashi whisper. 

“You’re awake,” she says softly, still staring at the drama playing out on screen. “How are you feeling?”

“Shitty.”

Sakura lifts her hand to her mouth as she lowers her eyes, turning around but unwilling to look at him just yet. “I’ll get you something for the pain. I know it hurts.”

“Don’t.” His fingers twitch, his face falling away from her. A sense of shame permeates the room as she stays still, and Kakashi retracts the hand when he realizes she’s not going to hold it. “Go, then,” he whispers. 

“I doubt they’re going to let me wander,” she says. “I’ve got nowhere  _ to  _ go.”

“Mmm.” 

She shouldn’t want to yell at him. She should want to hold him, care for him, because that’s what teammates do. They don’t sit and consider throttling the other because they don’t know what in the hell a whispered term of affection meant in the midst of nearly dying. 

She  _ shouldn’t _ want to, but she  _ does _ .

“What’s your problem?” Kakashi asks. It sounds like it should be snide, snotty, but as Sakura sits on the side of his bed, he just sounds  _ done.  _

“It can wait.”

“Don’t want it to,” Kakashi mumbles. 

“I don’t particularly care what you want, sensei,” she says softly. “I want a lot of things, but they’re being put off until we get out of here. Don’t be a child.”

“Sakura--” he groans when he reaches for her hand again, barely brushing over her fingers-- “‘m not a child.”

“Sure, sensei,” she says. Cautiously, shakily, she reaches back. His fingertips are rough, as they always are, and he’s right. He’s not a child. But he’s not quite himself, and she doesn’t want him to say something he regrets. She refuses to be the reason he pulls away after a botched attempt at admission. 

He’s quiet for a long while after that, relaxing bit by bit as her thumb smoothes circles over his skin. His brow furrows every so often as they sit, and she wonders what stray thoughts are causing irritation. There’s finally a point when he takes a sharp inhale that she thinks maybe he’s ready, but he just holds her hand a little tighter. 

“Kakashi?”

“This is nice,” he whispers. “Why haven’t we done it before?”

Sakura lets out a barely-there laugh and looks to where their fingers are tangled. “Don’t you remember the mission in Snow country? We had to fake a relationship to get the one remaining room together. There was hand-holding.”

“Yeah, but  _ you _ faked it.” He shuts his eyes and swallows hard before letting her go. “I’m sorry. We should be focusing on recovery. Just ignore me.”

“Kakas--”

“Drop it, please,” he says. 

That haunts her too. Through the days they’re at the hospital--she could have been released, but she refuses to leave him there--she doesn’t stop thinking about the way his breathing hitched on his accusation of faking it. She can’t forget the hurt in his eyes when she told him she didn’t care what he wanted.

They both know it’s a lie.

By the time they’re released, they’re teetering on the edge of snapping at each other. Kumo is kind, but being cooped up in a room with nowhere to go isn’t. A pained Kakashi isn’t. An irritated Sakura isn’t. They’re given the option to take a room for the night, but they don’t even need to consult each other before saying no. 

At least they’re provided with new uniforms, so she doesn’t have to listen to him whine about smelling blood. A breeze sends them off, armed as well with new packs and the weapons Kumo can spare. Sakura watches every branch snapping set Kakashi on edge, every leaf that blows past earning itself a nervous look. They pass near the blast site, and he leans into her with gaze focused on their feet. 

“Do you want to try retrieving anything?” she asks.

“No.”

“Are you going to say anything else, or are you just going to be a jackass?”

Kakashi scoffs, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he lengthens his strides. “I don’t want to retrieve anything because I don’t want to go back to the blood and pain, okay? Easy enough for you to understand?”

“Prick.”

“You’re the one poking at me,” Kakashi says. He stares straight ahead and keeps going, and Sakura’s lips turn down in irritation. It’s not  _ quite  _ anger yet, because she knows what it’s like to be forced into looking at something you’d rather keep buried. 

That doesn’t mean it’s not annoying.

It’s somewhere between the twenty-ninth and beginning of the thirtieth long-suffering sigh from Kakashi that she decides enough is enough. She stops in the middle of the road with arms crossed, and Kakashi takes several seconds to realize she’s no longer following. “Spit it out, sensei.”

“Sakura, it’s just past midday. What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m standing right here--” she taps the ground with a foot-- “until you either tell me what’s wrong or promise you’re not going to be a pouty shit the entire way back to Konoha. I haven’t seen you like this since you and Genma parted ways, and that was years ago.”

Kakashi groans, looks to the sky as he turns to face her. “Genma and I are in the past, Sakura, are we in the habit of dragging up ghosts now?”

“Better sit down if you’re not going to talk about it,” she says, gesturing to a stump on the side of the road. “Otherwise you’ve got a long day in the hot, hot sun to sit and stare at me, waiting for me to cave.”

He’s behind her in a flash, hands clamping on her shoulders as he lowers his masked mouth to her ear. “Or maybe we could just go home like we’re supposed to,  _ honey,”  _ he snarks, straightening and attempting to push her forward. “Don’t tell me I need to pull rank.”

“Don’t you dare use that tone on me,” Sakura says. She grabs his wrist, anger rising to the surface as she spins around and holds it to the side. He’s glaring, eyes narrow and lip slightly lifted in a snarl, but she sends one straight back. “I’m not a goddamn genin, Kakashi. Talk to me.”

To her eternal surprise his face softens after a second, his hand slipping from hers to smack against his thigh as he casts his gaze down. “Maybe I liked it, okay? In Snow. I liked being yours, and I liked holding your hand. So now we can forget it and let it go, Sakura. Go on. We need to make better time.”

**

Of all the things he expects from sudden honesty, Sakura taking a deep breath before smacking his shoulder and calling him an idiot again was not one of them. “How  _ dare  _ you?” she asks, jade eyes weling as she looks up at him. “How... _ dare you.” _

“How dare I?” They must be a sight to the two civilians coming up on his back, arguing as they are. “I haven’t dared do anything, Sakura, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
“You--” She pinches the bridge of her nose before putting both hands over her face. “You liked being mine.”

Kakashi shifts uncomfortably as she peeks out at him. He  _ definitely  _ wasn’t prepared for this...whatever  _ this  _ is. “Yeah,” he says. “So?”

“I can’t believe they’re making you hokage,” she sighs. “Your powers of observation are stunning.”

“They don’t call me the copy-ninja for nothing.”

She smacks him again. “So you’re telling me you’ve been blatantly ignoring the fact that I’m into you?” she asks, incredulous. “You’ve noticed me  _ begging  _ to be sent out with you because we’re ‘such a good team’? Are you seriously trying to tell me you believed that village had ONE ROOM in the entire place?”

“No, I--” 

“You’re a  _ FOOL.”  _ Her shout sends birds flying from the trees and has to draw the attention of anything and anyone in the immediate vicinity. She stands wide, fists bunched at her sides and her chakra fluctuating dangerously. “You mean to tell me--” she puts a finger under his chin, jabbing it uncomfortably into the soft flesh-- “I’ve spent the better part of this year not only being angry about Sasuke, but holding that back from the person who might actually give a shit?”

He’s silent, waiting for another verbal blow.

“I could’ve held your stupid hand so many more nights,” she instead whispers, and he feels his heart squeeze. She laughs dryly and brings a knuckle to her lips to bite. “If only you weren’t so fucking stubborn, Kakashi.”

“That’s always been the thing, hasn’t it,” he says, turning his palm toward her. She takes one hand in both of hers and traces the pale scars left behind from wielding his chidori. “It’s what makes me good at what I do.”

“It’s going to get you killed.” Sakura drops his hand in favor of wiping a tear from her cheek and taking a step back. “We’re stopping for the day, come on.” 

He protests as she grabs his forearm and drags him off the road, uncaring of the thin branches that slap into his face along the way. “We need to get back, Sakura.”

“With all due respect, sensei,” she says, “shut the hell up.”

He does. His body is thrumming with energy, adrenaline coursing through his veins and making him shake under her touch. Roots and stones threaten to turn his ankles where normally he’d have no problem, and he thinks maybe she’s right. Maybe he is a fool, because only a fool would get himself caught in an emotional mess on a mission after being nearly blasted to bits. 

They pause near a small stream. It’s a barely there thing, water babbling over rocks that nearly dam it. It’s clear, though, clean, and Sakura forces him to sit while she angrily clears a space for their small tent. She babbles along with the stream. Mostly nonsense, but Kakashi catches no small amount of cursing.

“You’re going to make an old man blush, Sakura,” he murmurs. “Let me help you. Give up some normalcy.”

“You’re going to sit right there,” she says, and he feels every bit like a scolded child as he twiddles his thumbs. She’s disrupting routine today, in all sorts of ways, and it’s vexing. “You’re going to sit and-and--” he looks back when he hears her sniff, only to watch her hold her head high-- “Just sit, Kakashi.”

“Tell me why you didn’t say anything that night,” he says, and her eyes are red-rimmed when she looks back. “One room, one bed--that we slept in  _ together,  _ I might add--and I know for a fact you didn’t sleep.”

“What about weeks later when you still turned red when you saw me in the street, hmm, Kakashi?” she counters, turning back to the task at hand. With a few expert tugs of rope and fabric the tent’s erected, and she throws her pack, then Kakashi’s inside. Her hair is sticking every which way with heat and humidity when she emerges, and Kakashi does the same thing he’s done so many times before.

He lets the red creep into his face, and this time he’s unashamed. 

“What?”

“Your hair,” he says, tugging on his own. “It’s everywhere.” She runs worried hands through it and he smiles. “It’s...cute.”

“So were you that night in Snow.” A little of the fight she’s carried in her for the last few days seems to leave her as her mouth cocks in a small smile. “But you were also rambling about Hana all week, so I just assumed you were pining. You do love a good sulk.”

“I was rambling about leaving my dogs with hers for breeding, if I remember correctly,” Kakashi says. He keeps careful watch as she sits down next to him, resting her elbows on her knees as she looks to the water. “I get nervous, being away from them.”

She taps his knee as her face splits in a grin. “No reason for nervousness when you’ve got me watching your back, Kakashi.”

“No, I suppose not,” he muses. 

“How is it?” she asks, seriousness falling back between them. “Any more pain? Stiffness?”

“So forward, Sakura, asking if I’m stiff.”

She taps him again, though this time it’s in annoyance. “Don’t push your luck.”

“I’m fine,” he says. Birds flit through the branches and they both watch, though Kakashi’s scanning for more than stray feathers. There’s no feeling of being watched, but he’s not about to take the chance that they might be torched again. 

“Your turn to tell me about Snow,” Sakura says eventually. “How did it feel to hold my hand, Kakashi?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Sex?
> 
> Them: Awkward situations it is!

He doesn’t quite know how to tell her it felt like home. When they’d walked through the doors to the hotel, hand in hand, it felt like something shifted and things were  _ right.  _ “I, ah…”

“You can read trash in public but you’re scared to tell me about feelings?” Sakura teases.

“That’s different.”

“I think you’re being unreasonable,” she says, smiling. “I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed that night.”

“I didn’t want to stop,” Kakashi says. His fingers sway idly between his legs, brushing over grass and leaves as he bends forward. “In the spirit of honesty, Sakura, I didn’t want to stop holding your hand.”

“Oh?”

Kakashi sighs and slumps over his knees to stare at the ground below. “You’re going to wring it out of me no matter what, aren’t you?” he asks.

“Have you ever known me to be different, Kakashi?”

He snorts. “You’re Tsunade’s student. If you  _ didn’t  _ do that, I’d have to have words with her about how much you’ve actually picked up.” Tentatively, he brushes his hands closer to hers. “We really shouldn’t be doing this out here, especially this close to Kumo.”

“We hadn’t put up wards there,” she points out.

“We haven’t here either.” Kakashi takes his hands away and stands, breath shaky in his chest as he begins running through his seals. Sakura stands behind him and prepares the other half of their site and when he turns around, she’s got a furrow of concentration between her brows that he thinks is the cutest thing he’s ever seen. 

“What?” she asks, and he realizes he’s staring.

“This.” He pokes her forehead and she crosses her arms, the furrow deepening.

“I’ll have you know it’s quite a normal size,” she snips.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” Kakashi says. He puts his hands up in surrender when her eyes narrow suspiciously. “I just...you get this little--” Reaching out again, he uses a gentler touch to smooth the lines away before touching the same place on his face. “When you concentrate.”

Sakura worries her lips between her teeth and looks at the ground for a second. “You have the oddest way of flirting,” she says. “If I didn’t know you better, I might be insulted.”

“But you  _ do  _ know me better, and you find it just as adorable?”

“Yes, Kakashi, you’re as cute as my forehead.” She rolls her eyes, then her shoulders before taking a step forward and pressing her face against his chest, arms still crossed as she rests. “But much more needy.”

“Jerk.”

“Sensei.”

“Fine,” he groans. “We do need something else, you know.” When she looks up, he inclines his head toward the tent. “Could use a fire.”

When she turns to make one, it’s a loss. It does afford him the opportunity to sneak a glance every so often, however, so he’ll take what he can get. Now that the initial admissions of attraction are over, he finds himself focusing on her hair, her eyes, the way her muscles bunch under her skin. 

He’ll even admit to admiring the curve of her ass when she crawls into the tent.

When she crawls back out with rations, he straightens immediately and holds a hand out for a bar. She hands him one as sits down next to him, on a log with their backs to the water and the fire in front of them. “We could catch something instead,” she offers.

“I don’t want to clean it,” Kakashi says.

“Lazy.”

“Maa, Sakura, the stream’s not big enough to wash a uniform in. I don’t want blood on it,” he grumbles. 

“Unreasonable,” she repeats, and walks her fingers up his knee. Shoulder to shoulder, they watch the flames snap and pop in the quickly cooling air. The passing minutes are quiet, silent save for the sounds of the forest as they lean against each other.  _ Homey.  _ Missions aren’t ever like this with others. He’d still rather be at home _ ,  _ instead of in the wilderness, but he supposes quiet outdoor moments with Sakura are better than lonely moments locked in his apartment.

“Who gets first watch?” he finally asks.

“I don’t know we need one,” she murmurs back. Her eyes are fixed on the fire still, sparkling in the light before they slip shut and she lays her head on his shoulder. “Wards are strong, aren’t they?”

“We should, though…”

“I think we should take the time and figure out what this is before we get back to Konoha and everything gets fucked,” she says.

Kakashi raises an eyebrow. “Everything?” She stiffens, and he almost makes it to wincing before he hears the softest groan. “It was a joke, Sakura.”

“Does that mean you don’t want to?”

“Sakura…” He lets his head slip to rest over hers and sighs softly. Of course he wants to. He’s wanted to from the moment he woke to her face inches from his in Snow. Pale, cheeks dusted in the lightest pink, her hair spread across the pillow in the most inviting picture he’d ever seen. “In the woods?”

Her smirk tells him what he needs to know.  _ Yes, in the woods.  _

“On the ground, with lumps and stones, and all manner of wildlife, Sakura, that’s where you want to figure out how we fit together?”

She scoots back, flips a leg over the log, and nods. “I think we’ve waited long enough, don’t you?”

“I’d really rather not be surprised again,” he whispers as she leans ever-closer. He shuts his eyes as her hands brush over his knees, then begin the ascent up his thighs. Her face is mere inches from his in an invitation, but it’s one he can’t currently accept. “We’re in the middle of Lightning country yet, Sakura, can it wait until we’re back in Fire, at least?”

Her disappointed sigh cuts through the air between them like a kunai, severing the tension. “Sure,” she says. “That’s fine.”

“I don’t think it is.”

“We’re on a mission.” She stands abruptly, about to stalk off, but he grabs her wrist before she can go. “I’m going to take a walk, Kakashi.”

“Please stay,” he says softly. Her eyes soften a bit at the tone, and he slides his fingers down to tangle them with hers. It’s a little more hesitant than Snow, more hesitant than in the hospital, because here in the woods where there’s no one to interrupt, he feels as though the slightest misstep could cost it all. “You could talk to me instead of running away,” he continues. “Isn’t that what sort of got us into this mess in the first place?”

“Getting lost on the road of life,” she says with a snort. “It’s always that way with you, isn’t it?”

Kakashi’s mouth quirks up under his mask. “Seems to be.”

“You are...quite the puzzle, Kakashi.” Sakura relaxes, grips his hand a little tighter before turning around and sitting with her back to his chest. She keeps their hands on her chest, just over her heart, and Kakashi sinks into the feeling of her body in front of him. “I think I’m going to enjoy figuring you out.”

**

That night is spent staying up late and talking. Secrets are revealed under a starlit sky and as the fire wanes, so does Sakura’s arousal. It fades away to a low simmer in the pit of her stomach, barely distinguishable from the warmth of Kakashi’s arms around her waist. As he speaks, lips barely moving against her neck as stories come pouring out, she feels herself giving in to the idea of love she’s held herself from for so long. 

When he tells her how proud he is, she smiles.

When she tells him how many nights she’s stayed up, hoping they’re staring at the same moon, his face heats as he turns it into her throat.

When they both admit they’ve been too afraid to give this feeling a name, the softest breeze rustles through the trees at the moment she presses her lips to his through the fabric of his mask. Kakashi starts, then melts into her as he moans softly. It’s quiet, chaste, but Sakura thinks this feeling is the only one she wants to chase from now on.

_ Safe. _

His breath comes quicker when they break. “You didn’t take it off,” he murmurs.

“You didn’t ask me to.” 

“You’re sweet,” he says, and she puts her hands over his when he moves to pull the fabric down.

“I want to do that myself, Kakashi,” she says. “But I want to do it when I can see you properly.”

“And what about what I want?” he asks, barely audible over the choir of crickets.

“What’s that?” Sakura breathes. Her arousal is climbing again, pulled higher with every brush of Kakashi’s knuckles against her neck, her cheek, her arm. “Tell me.”

“To give you a proper kiss,” he says. The small pout on his face is anything but professional but tonight, what is? “Close your eyes and I’ll do it myself.”

She complies, and he pulls her hands to cup cheeks filled in by two weeks’ worth of growth. It surprises her. “This is…” She trails off, exploring, and feels the way his face lifts in a smile when hers does. “I’ll bet you look ridiculous.”

“I  _ feel _ ridiculous,” he says. 

She laughs and rests her forehead against his as she pulls her hands down to brush her fingers over his lips. “I’m sure you’re handsome as always, sensei.”

In response, he leans forward and--as he said he would--kisses her properly. He kept his gloves, and the leather slides over her skin as he angles her face to his. Warmth spreads from every point of contact until she’s enveloped in it, buzzing with it, and when Kakashi’s tongue teases at the seam of her lips, she lets herself drown in it. With a soft gasp, she pitches forward and allows him to take control.

He kisses like wildfire--blazing, all-consuming, leaving her sweating when he pulls away for a breath. When he comes back for more, she does her best to keep herself anchored in this world by fisting her hands in his jacket tight enough she won’t ever be dragged away. When he finally, after what seems to be an eternity, stops and tells her she can look now, she’s dazed. She blinks hard a few times before catching the lines at the corners of his eyes that mean joy, and then she throws her arms around him.

“To think you’ve hidden that from me for years now,” she whispers. “You selfish bastard.”

“I, ah, hide it from a lot of people.” His hand comes up and he rubs the back of his head when she lets him go, ducking his head in embarrassment. “Can’t have the hokage being mobbed in the street just for a kiss, could we?”

“Save it for me,” Sakura says. She presses her lips to Kakashi’s jaw before taking his hands again. “It’s got to be past midnight. Are you planning on being up for a while longer? Taking watch?”

“Probably,” he says, swallowing hard. Sakura follows his eyes down to between them, and he quickly puts his hands over himself. “I can’t help it,” he mutters. “At least I suppose I can tell you that it’s your fault this time.”

There’s nothing more she wants to do than to press his hands to where she’s certain her underwear is ruined, but she settles for another kiss. “Would you like the tent?”

“I want  _ you,”  _ he grumbles, but declines the offer. “I’ll sit out here and cool down. Go to sleep.” He gently pushes her away and keeps his eyes on her when she stands. “I’ll be in in a while. Doesn’t seem to be anyone about tonight.”

“You’re sure I can’t convince you to join me?”  
“I told you, let’s get closer to Konoha.”

Sakura reaches to fluff his hair and darts off before he can grab her and make her regret it. “I’ll have all the fun without you,” she calls across the clearing, climbing into the tent and immediately shedding the sodden fabric. “Can’t get to sleep like this anyway,” she whispers. Her pack is lumpy below her head, the ground hard beneath her back, but the pressure of her fingers over her clit shove it to the back of her mind.

She doesn’t bother biting her lip this time. More than once over the last few years she’s done this in silence as Kakashi is posted outside, but those nights hadn’t been spent in the intimacy of tonight. Sakura isn’t  _ loud  _ by any means, but when she shuts her eyes and unashamedly fantasizes of Kakashi fingering her open the groan that tumbles from her lips is one she  _ knows  _ Kakashi hears. 

She listens to his answering noise of frustration with a smile twisting on her lips.

Teasing, twisting, tantalizing, her fingers send sparks flickering through her body. She hears Kakashi get up and move, but doesn’t care  _ where  _ as long as he doesn’t interrupt her climb to the top. Her legs tense, lifting her hips to chase the pleasure she knows will come crashing soon. “Nyah,” she gasps. “Fuck--” 

Her panting overtakes every sound from outside, heart thundering as the familiar drop in her stomach hits. “Sensei, ooh, fuck,  _ Kakashi~” _

It’s the sight of fingers peeking through the flaps that do her in. She comes undone before wide brown eyes, exposing herself by the light of the small lamp in the corner. Kakashi’s on her before she’s stopped shivering, settling on her with his nose buried in her neck and pulling her hands above her head. “I told you to wait,” he growls.

“You told  _ us  _ to wait,” she says, and he only tightens his grip. “Problem, Kakashi?”

“You don’t listen,” he says. With his free hand, he closes her eyes and tugs down his mask. “Could’ve been heard, or seen--” his lips fall to her neck, pushing the fabric as far down her shoulder as he can before he bites her,  _ hard.  _ “You’re fucking distracting.”

“What, your dick wasn’t distraction enough?” Sakura bucks up with her hips and pushes Kakashi to the side, using the surprise to break his hold and straddle him instead. “Poor sensei, all alone in the big, bad forest,” she moans, rolling against the definite  _ lack  _ of bulge. “Bringing himself off to the sound of his not-yet-lover because he wants to wait.” She leans down to press their chests together and spreads their arms out to the sides. “Did you like seeing me coming for you?”

“Sakura,” he strains, shutting his eyes. “You’re going to have another problem if you don’t get off of me.”

“And what would that be?”

“I will make you sleep outside, so help me.”

She nips at his pulse before relaxing onto him, blanketing his body with hers. “You’d make me sleep outside with all the bugs, Kakashi?”

“If it’ll keep me off of you until we get closer to Konoha,” he rasps. “I  _ swear,  _ Sakura, you can have me when we get out of here.”

“Fine,” she whispers, and this time it is. Below her, she can feel the tension in Kakashi’s limbs as he forces back a shudder. “But I’m not promising anything about tomorrow night,” she continues. “Or the next. You know what you do to me.”

“Yeah,” he breathes, nuzzling against the side of her face. “I do.”

“I’d even let you watch me.”

“Sakura.” 

“Yes, yes, all right,” she says. 

He groans in relief when she slides off of him. “You might kill me before anyone else does,” he says, running a hand through his hair. “No, scratch that. You  _ will  _ be the death of me.”

“Mm, what a beautiful death, though.” Sakura chuckles at his wry smile. “What?”

“Iruka’s always told me I’ll go out the way of an Icha Icha protagonist.”

“And how would that be?”

“Surrounded by beautiful women.”

Sakura  _ actually  _ laughs at that, harder when Kakashi has the nerve to look affronted. “So it’s my distracting beauty that’s going to get you killed,” she muses, holding their hands up to study the way they fit together. “Heart attack because you fucked me too hard, do you think?”

Kakashi chokes.

“No, you’re too healthy for that,” she continues, ignoring it. “Maybe I’ll walk by when you’re polishing kunai and you’ll trip. Kunai, Kakashi, or just happy to see me?”

“No!” he yelps. “Kunai, kunai.” He hurriedly pulls her bedroll over himself and turns to the side, peeking over his shoulder with a wary eye. “...weapon of mass destruction in the right hands.”

“You did not.”

He grins. “I did.”

_ “Jokes.”  _

“You’ll laugh eventually.” He stares her down, her chin propped on his shoulder, until she does. It’s barely a snort at first, a small giggle, then he cracks up and she along with him. 

“Weapon of m-mass des-destruction,” she manages, wiping a tear from her eye. “I did  _ not  _ want to laugh, I really didn’t. What book did you steal that from?”

“All original,” he says. He shrugs as he straightens out again, patting his chest. She lays against him and hears the remainder of a laugh rumble through him before reaching up for a kiss. It wasn’t the unmasking she had planned, and he does look a bit ridiculous, but none of that matters when their lips press together. They smile, and Kakashi allows her to take as long as she wants. 

“You’re ridiculous,” she whispers when she’s done. “Absolutely fucking ridiculous.”

“And you’re so much better?”

_ “I  _ don’t crack jokes right after walking in on my partner,” she says.

“No,” he says, nestling her against his side, “because you’ve never walked in on me. You have come close, though.”

Sakura angles her face up to gape at him. “You’re shitting me.”

He reaches over to kill the light before settling down and sighing. “I’m not.”

_ “When?” _

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” he says. “I’m sure it’ll come out in time.”

Sakura makes a soft noise of affirmation when she falls to rest once more. Kakashi adjusts the blanket so it’s over both of them, and she doesn’t know if sleeping on the ground has ever felt more comfortable. It’s not the ground, though, it’s  _ Kakashi.  _ Warm, cushioning her from the outside... _ real.  _ “You were right,” she murmurs.

“Hmm?’

“In the hospital. This is nice.” The post-orgasm haze is dying, the hour growing long as they lay under the sounds of the forest. Her eyes drift shut and she breathes deeply before searching for his hand once more. “Remind me to thank Tsunade for sending you out with me.”

“Mhmm.”

“I’m sorry if I punch you in the face while asleep.”

He shifts to look down at her. “I know what those can do. Keep your hands far away from my face, honey.”

The word warms her further, and she smiles into his side. “I like that,” she says softly. “It sounds good from your mouth.” She slides a hand up his throat to drag her fingers over his lips, shivering when his tongue flicks out to taste them. “Kakashi…”

“Go to sleep, Sakura,” he whispers. “I’ll be here for you in the morning.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  ~~I am so goddamn sorry but this keeps getting longer~~. I honestly didn't set out with the intention of more than 6k *facepalm*
> 
> However! The smut is started in my document! I just didn't want a sudden 8k chapter. So next chapter, tent sex and then Sakura gets what she's promised in this chapter when they get back to Konoha.

 

Waking up next to Sakura is just as good as Kakashi remembers. It’s just after dawn, early morning sun creeping through the canopy to dip between the flaps of the tent and light her sleeping face. He takes more than a few minutes to appreciate, then brushes his lips over her temple. “Sakura,” he whispers.

She doesn’t wake.

“Don’t tell me I have to go fetch water to pour on you,” he continues, and the faint ghost of a smile flits across her lips before she groans and rolls to face his chest.

“I’d stop you before you got out of the tent,” she says groggily.

In response, he kisses her forehead again and begins to thread his fingers through her hair. It’s knotted, tangled from her moving around during the night. He had indeed very nearly been punched in the face, though the knee to his crotch had been far more worrying. She grumbles when he hits a particularly stubborn patch and bats his hands away so she can gather the hair in a ponytail. “I was working there,” he grouches.

“Save it for when I’m more presentable,” she says, pressing up over him on an elbow only to lean down for a quick kiss. It’s over before Kakashi is ready, and then she’s clambering over him and out into the day.

He yawns and follows her, escaping the last clutches of sleep as the light hits his eyes. Too bright, too early, too  _ loud  _ as a bird shrieks by his head. “Shut up,” he mutters. “You don’t have anything to cry about.” The ground sinks slightly below his knees as he kneels next to Sakura by the stream and cups his hands for a drink.  _ That  _ feels a bit better, and he drinks deep before splashing some on his face. When he blinks it away, Sakura’s staring with the biggest smile on her face. “Hmm?”

“You’re not wearing your mask.”

“Give it five minutes,” he says around another yawn. “I’m sure I could be coaxed into putting it back on.”

“Sure you could.” Sakura touches his hair before walking away, and if it were anyone else he’d be yelling. It’s not, though, and it felt good, so he just takes another drink and begins helping her dismantle the site.

Their time on the road is a torture so unique Kakashi begins to think it’s one of Ibiki’s cruel genjutsus. Almost but not-quite touches, longing looks over shoulders, the light lilt of her teasing that has him on edge with every step...and not a damn thing he can do about it. She uses his own words against him, more than once.  _ ‘When we get back to Fire Country, Kakashi. Don’t you want to wait, honey? Surely the future hokage has  _ some  _ self control.’ _

He  _ might,  _ if she didn’t keep swinging her hips directly in front of him.

Thankfully, by the time night hits, she relents. They set up camp a ways off the road and settle in for another night of stories. As he listens, watching her hands wave by the light of the fire, he’s struck by an almost overwhelming urge to simply  _ hold  _ her. She squeaks as he pulls her against him but accepts it, sinking into him with all the trust in the world. “How are you feeling?” she asks eventually, reaching back to touch his shoulder.

He knows she means the injury, but he pulls her hand to rest over his heart and says, “Full.”

“Come on, Kakashi.”

“It aches and there’s some pulling, but it’s fine, Sakura,” he tells her. “I was fortunate enough to have one of the best healers around to help me.”

“Oh, stop,” she says. She ducks her head and flushes, more so when Kakashi tugs down his mask and presses his bare lips to her throat. Her head tilts, offering more access, and he leaves a trail of barely-there nips before kissing the purpling bruise he’d left the night before.

“I think this color almost looks better on you than pink,” he murmurs, relishing in the way she shivers below him. “Maybe sometime I’ll mark you all over, nice and pretty. Would you like that, Sakura?”

“Oh,  _ gods,  _ Kakashi,” she breathes. “Please.”

“Mmm,” he hums, taking one last breath before fixing her collar and settling his chin primly on her shoulder. “Later.”

“Fuck,” she says, breath leaving her in a frustrated rush. “I suppose that means there’s no chance of getting you in my pants tonight, then, am I right?”

“Consider it payback for all the times you distracted me on the road.” Kakashi slowly,  _ ever _ so slowly, reaches his right hand up to cup the side of her breast, thumb skirting her hardened nipple to the sound of her strangled gasp. “After all the time we’ve spent together, you should know better than to tease.” He keeps his eyes on the fire as he does it again, circling as he does his best to keep his voice steady. “I could just say no until we get back, keep watch over you the whole time until I have you spread on my bed and begging for me to let you come.”

“You wouldn’t.”

His voice is a whisper at best, lips barely brushing over her earlobe. “Would you like me to tie your hands up, maybe?” he asks as she whines. “Keep them away while I bring you off, over and over again--” his brow knits in pleasure for a split second at the thought before he regains control-- “Watching you come from my fingers alone would make me so happy, Sakura.”

“You are, without a doubt, the absolute worst man in the world right now,” she pants. Her head drops back to his shoulder as another quiet whine leaves her, and then she’s left wanting as Kakashi settles back to chastely holding her waist. “I promise I won’t tease, Kakashi, please.”

“The weather’s nice, isn’t it?” he remarks, and she slumps back in defeat.

“Maybe I’ll tie  _ you  _ up instead, hmm?”

“The perfect temperature,” he continues. “And not too humid that my hair goes crazy.”

_ “You’re  _ crazy.”

“That may be, but you have to admit it’s nice not being under the rain,” Kakashi says, and feels Sakura begin to stiffen. “Not being all...wet…”

“The  _ worst.” _

“Trust me, honey, I’ll be the best you’ve had.” 

Sakura sighs and grumbles, but doesn’t deny it as she pulls his arms tighter around her. They sit until the fire dies, Kakashi beginning to tire somewhere around the time he delves into the past and tells Sakura how it felt to watch his friend die. It sort of slips out unbidden, and he looks over to see her eyes shimmering in the light of the embers. 

“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “Didn’t mean to make the night upsetting.”

“It just sometimes hits you,” she says. “What we are.”

“Yeah.” 

She turns and nuzzles into his neck, warm breath tickling his throat as they contemplate. Eventually she stops and shuffles around so she’s sat between his hips, facing him. “I’d love to hear more later, but we should get to bed,” she murmurs. “Come with me?”

“Sure, Sakura,” he says, a lopsided smile on his lips. “Take me.”

She huffs before standing and offering a hand, dragging him up and through the flaps to kneel over her. “The best,” she muses, blindly fumbling for his face in the dark. When she finds it, she tugs his head down for a tender kiss to his forehead. “You’d better live up to your word, sensei.”

Kakashi flops to the side and this time it’s her tucking him in her arms, Sakura holding him close enough to stave off the memories. “Have I ever failed you before?”

“Well…”

He growls playfully and steals whatever she was going to say next with a kiss, rolling onto his back and pulling her to lay on top of him before they break. “You’re exemplary, Kakashi,” he says, pitching his voice up. “What a fine example of what a Konoha shin--”

“Fine example of a pervert,” she says, lazily running her hands up his sides before trapping his head between her elbows. “Fine example of a delinquent.”

“Maa, Sakura, you’re thinking of Iruka-sensei in his youth.”

“Iruka-sensei isn’t the one who’s managed to worm his way into my heart and hopefully my panties later,” Sakura purrs. She lets her head flop so they’re cheek to cheek and relaxes, suddenly crushing his chest. “Iruka’s not Konoha’s finest example of a fucking tease.”

“That’d be you,” Kakashi teases gently, running a knuckle up and down her back. Within minutes, she’s slipped away and he’s left with the feeling of her crushing him. “Definitely just you,” he breathes. His eyes close and he lets himself drift, nosing into her cheek as blackness overtakes him.

**

Sakura dreams that night. She dreams of silver and pink twined together so tightly she doesn’t know where she ends and Kakashi begins but the important thing is, she can finally dream without guilt. She gives herself up to the thought of how she imagines Kakashi sounds with a hand wrapped around him, gives herself up to the thought of more than hands.

When Kakashi wakes her, she cradles his face in her palm and memorizes the way his scar disappears into silver hair, the small mark just below his lips. She kisses it, and Kakashi shrinks in embarrassment. “I dreamed of you,” she murmurs.

“Was it a good dream?”

She smiles as she recalls his words from last night. “The best.”

“Tell me about it on the road,” he says, and just like that their day begins. They only have a day and a half’s worth of journey left and part of her is tempted to stall, but when all is said and done they’re on a mission. Personal life comes second.

There’s a somber feel in the air between them as they walk, as though the anxiety about what will happen come Konoha is settling onto both sets of shoulders at once. They can talk, sure. It’s great. More than great, if she’s being honest, but talking isn’t doing. She tucks her arms against her stomach as the humidity sets in and begins to nibble on her bottom lip before Kakashi reaches over for a hand.

“What’s wrong, Sakura?”

She takes it with a faint smile. “Thinking about when we get back.”

“And wondering how things will change?”

Sakura nods.

“Hey, hey,” he soothes, turning around to catch her in a hug. “We always manage to figure things out, hmm?”

“Takes you long enough sometimes,” she mumbles into his chest.

“Let’s not let it take this long again,” Kakashi says. 

“I won’t.” She looks up at him just as the rain begins to fall, catching the first few drops before yanking him under the trees on the side of the road. He looks shocked, caught off guard, and the way he shakes his head like a dog is too funny not to laugh at. “What would the pack say if they saw you acting like one of them?”

“Probably ‘it’s about time,’” Kakashi says, looking sheepish. “I’ll try not to do it in the shower.”

“Planning on showering with me already?” Sakura asks.

“I mean--” Kakashi looks to the sky, lifting a hand as if to show her something. “We sort of are.”

She just laughs and pulls him out into the road when they realize it’s not going away anytime soon. He crabs about it, she brushes it off, but when it lets up and they’re left to melt in the sun, they’re both more than ready for a break when it starts to set. The border to Fire Country is far behind them, and Sakura waits for Kakashi to pick a spot to set up camp. 

“This way,” he says, motioning her into the forest.

“So far,” she groans after what seems to be forever.

“Trust me,” he says. “You’ll like this place.” He pushes on ahead and she’s left with no choice to follow him. In all honesty if they’d pushed a bit harder they could’ve made it to Konoha by morning, but the way Kakashi had glanced over at various intervals said he wasn’t about to wait.

Her ears perk up at the sound of rushing water. “A river?”

“One of my favorite spots,” he says with a grin. Gesturing ahead, he lets her move first into the small glade. It’s stunning, trees soaring on all sides and a small set of rapids flowing over the rocks in the river. When she looks back, he’s leaning against a tree with both hands in his pockets and cheeks lifted below his mask. 

“How have you hidden this all this time?” she asks, turning in the dying light.

He shrugs.

“Keep your secrets, then,” she says. Once more she turns, surveying the area around for any suspicious activity. Spying none, she walks over to him and sets her pack down to raise on her tiptoes for a kiss. It’s not quite as nice through the mask, but she’ll take what she can get before they’re back in the village and under scrutiny. “Tent?”

“Don’t want to scar the unsuspecting animals when I strip you,” he whispers, and he  _ finally  _ brings her hand to where his cock is beginning to fill. “Or better, when I fuck you.” His own hands reach around to slide over her ass, grabbing and pulling her flush against him. “Please say yes.”

“I suppose being taken against a tree wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable.” She risks a quick nip to his bottom lip through the fabric before bending down, purposely avoiding the now-evident bulge in his pants as she picks up her pack and takes out the tent. Green eyes meet brown and there’s an eternity there before she breaks away, trailing the lightest fingers over the front of his pants. “Come on, Kakashi, put up the wards. Don’t make me do it all myself.”

“Demanding, aren’t you?” he says, dutifully doing as she asks.

“You have no idea.”

He peers over out of the corner of his eye as she pulls out the tent and searches for a good place to set it. There’s a small area sheltered by trees that she chooses, and soon finds Kakashi’s fingers working alongside hers to help pitch faster. They shake, just a bit, and he gives a short laugh. “Think I’d be, um...well.”

“Nervous, Kakashi?” she says softly. 

“Not afraid to admit it,” he says. “It’s like the feeling before...oh, the Chunin exams?”

She snorts and elbows his side, nearly bowling him over into the grass. “It’s not a test.”

“Yeah, but it’s important.” Kakashi lets out a huff when he sits down, fiddling intently with a string and stake. When he finishes one, he moves onto the next, then the next, and Sakura gives him his time to consider. He comes back around, and there she is waiting. “I need to make you happy, hmm?” he hums against her cheek. “We’ve been waiting for nearly a year, after all.”

“So stop waiting,” she whispers. They breathe together in the last vestiges of the fading light, rushing water covering the soft sigh she lets out at the feeling of his hands skirting over the outside of her thighs. When she opens her eyes after the slightest press of her lips to his, the first thing she sees is him with his brow knit as he holds her right hand to his cheek. “What do you need, Kakashi?”

**

He needs everything. He needs her closer, further, he needs to rewind time so he can  _ see _ the way her eyes widen at the first touches of his fingers. He needs to make sure she’s comfortable, and he needs to make sure she never feels like he doesn’t care again. He needs it all, but the second that passes between her question and his answer isn’t time enough to put that into words. Instead, he noses into her hair and tells her they should take a minute to wash the dust of the road from their skin.

When she reaches for the zipper on his vest, tentatively, he  _ shouldn’t  _ be shocked. The metallic whine as she drags the tab down shouldn’t set his pulse to pounding, but it does. He swallows hard, trying to work some moisture into his suddenly-dry mouth when the fabric falls to the forest floor amidst the fireflies beginning to light the night. When she tells him he can take hers off, he needs to remember how to  _ breathe.  _

He wishes he still had the Sharingan to capture these moments. Sakura’s still got her thin undershirt on, but the delicate hollows of her collarbones call to him as she reaches over to light their lantern. There will be no fire tonight save for the one burning low and heavy in his stomach, as if he’s swallowed molten rock.

“Do I need to do the rest?” she says, dragging her hands up her legs as she stands. “Should I strip for you, Kakashi?”

He stands along with her and tugs off his mask first, then his shirt. Sakura gasps as the angry red of fresh scars is revealed, fingers twitching toward him before he shakes his head. “Let me,” he murmurs.

Inch by inch, the pale curve of her stomach is revealed. Shadows flicker and dance over it along with the flames, and when Kakashi pulls Sakura’s shirt the entire way off he thinks not even the prettiest sunset could compare. There’s several scars--no shinobi makes it out without them--and no shortage of muscle packed into her small frame, but somehow she makes a battleborn body beautiful.

Sakura makes  _ life  _ beautiful.

Her breath hitches when he tells her this, something shifting in her at the tender touch of his lips against her forehead. “You’re sure you don’t want me to just jump you right now?” she says breathlessly.

“No jumping,” he says. “Only falling.”

“Too late,” she says, lips curling in a quiet smile as she grasps his hands and holds them between their chests. “I’ve fallen over and over again, and you’ve always been there to pick me back up, haven’t you?” She lets him go, and Kakashi is positive he’s found heaven on earth in the soft sound of her bra hitting the grass. 

He closes his eyes, screws them tightly shut when Sakura’s fingers whisper over his cheeks. “I don’t want to wait,” he murmurs as he turns to kiss her palm. “I’ve been falling too, Sakura, you know that.”

“Come, Kakashi,” she says. She uncrosses her arms, bares herself before taking his hands and stepping back toward the river. “Don’t tell me you take after your dogs in you won’t set foot in a bath.”

His face splits in a grin before he races ahead, pulls her flush against him on the bank. When he extends their arms to the side, twirling once before bending her over the arm bracing her back, she lets out a squeak that he swallows with a kiss. “I want you to  _ enjoy  _ me, not suffer me,” he murmurs against her lips. “Take off your pants.”

“Take them off for me,” she challenges, and who is he to deny her? She shivers when his hands glide down her stomach, only the merest hint of contact before he looks down and flips the button open.

“I wonder…” He trails off, distracted by the soft skin of her hips as they sway.

“What?”

Kakashi shakes his head and bends at the knees to help her shimmy out of the offending fabric. “Lots of things, really, but right now mostly how you’re going to feel coming undone around me. You’re stunning, Sakura.” He wants nothing more than to bury his face between thighs strong enough to crush him, but he settles for a kiss just above the mess of pink curls. “I wonder what you’ll ask me to do to you.”

She answers his smirk with one of her own, meeting his eyes as he slowly stands back up. “Maybe I won’t ask,” she says. “Maybe I’ll tell.” 

“Maybe I’ll even listen.” Kakashi lets her undress him, and she takes her time. The caress of her calloused fingertips over the x on his stomach follows each line down to the dark fabric of his pants, and he rests his forehead against hers as she fumbles with the button. He undoes it himself, but still she pauses. “Are you okay?”

“You’re absolutely sure?” she asks.

Kakashi nods three times. “Are you?”

“I just wanted to be certain,” she says. She pulls the zipper down, slides her hands below the elastic of Kakashi’s underwear, and pushes. He hopes her sharp inhale means that she likes what she sees, but he doesn’t know for sure. While the thought of being completely immersed in her is thrilling, the thought of freezing water is less so and because of this he’s only slightly hard.

“You’re stunning too,” she breathes, though, and he cards his fingers through her hair while he takes the moment to appreciate the sight of her on her knees. 

It’s over far too soon. She lures him in with a false sense of security and the promise of a kiss before telling him the last one in gets to pack up tomorrow. Before he knows it, she’s turned tail and is stepping in before he even moves. It does afford him the chance to watch varying degrees of shock flit across her face as the cold registers, and he laughs at the way her jaw flops open. 

“You bastard,” she gasps. “Warn me!”

“Hey Sakura,” he chuckles, “water’s a bit chilly.”

A  _ bit  _ is an understatement. Kakashi nearly scraps the entire idea when he steps in, eddies swirling around his ankles before she pulls him further. “If I’ve got to suffer, you do too,” she says, pouring an ice-cold handful down his back. It’s her turn to laugh when he sticks his chest out comically. “Hurry up. We’ll warm each other up in the tent, hmm?”

Kakashi makes a note to take her to an onsen at some point, private, so he can appreciate the way her body moves in the water instead of shiver when her hands move over his skin. It only takes a few quick minutes to make themselves presentable, and the mad dash into the sanctity of the tent is nothing short of amusing. 

Sakura’s on her way to curling up against him when she stops. “We left the lantern.”

“It’s covered?”

“You should go get it,” she insists, rolling him toward the door. With a groan, he picks it up along with their discarded clothes as he lets his chakra unfurl for another check around the area. Finding no sign of life beyond the wild, he climbs back in to the sight of Sakura holding a blanket out for him. “I said I’d warm you,” she says.

“Didn’t know this was what you had in mind.” Kakashi accepts the gesture anyway, and reclines against her as her arms settle over his shoulders. “Not that I’m complaining,” he whispers into her throat. “I think I like your hugs better than holding your hand, even.”

Her laugh reverberates through her chest and into his. “The great Hatake Kakashi, taken down with a hug,” she jokes. “Am I always going to be the one saving you?”

“Would that be so horrible?” Kakashi asks. He raises a hand to cradle her cheek, fingers unfurling slowly as warmth begins to return to them. When she trembles, he pulls her lips to his for a kiss he pours his whole heart into. Every day since Snow, every feeling, every lingering glance--he kisses her what he hopes is so thoroughly that she won’t ever forget it’s them who save each other. 

When they part, both panting slightly, her eyes meet his with no hesitation. “No,” she says. “I’d rather enjoy being that for you.”

“Oh, good,” he says. “Because I’ll be honest, sometimes I need someone to save me from Tsunade and her teachi--”

Sakura puts a hand over his mouth and pushes him down, laying him backwards over her leg as she giggles. “I know where you stash your books for when she’s not looking,” she says. “I’ll much sooner save you from yourself, Kakashi.”

“Rude,” he grumbles.

“You’ll thank me eventually.” She raises her hands when he shuffles out of her lap and sits, offering a hug of his own. When he begins attempting to untangle her hair, this time she doesn’t push him away. Section by section he goes, water dripping on the blanket below as she hums contentedly. 

It calms him. When Sakura takes his hand and brushes it lower, over her shoulder, he smiles against the back of her head and rubs his thumb soothingly over her pale skin. “Is this you saying hurry up, Kakashi?” he teases.

“Might be.”

“Are you going to use your words?”

“I want you to touch me,” she says, turning so she’s speaking against his cheek. “To fuck me.”

“So unromantic,” he says. “No making love in the moonlit night?”

Her answering sigh sends a shiver down his spine. “I don’t care how you do it. I just want you inside of me.”

“I’ve waited a long time for you to say that,” he mumbles. “Spread your legs, Sakura.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *does a dance* It's dooooone, finally!

She feels like drowning. Already, just being close to him, her limbs are warm and pliant as Kakashi’s hands gently push her thighs to the side. Oxygen is hard to come by in the confines of the tent, and she breathes in the scent that is uniquely Kakashi’s deeply as a replacement. An arm snakes around her stomach, Kakashi seemingly content to take his time and touch her everywhere. 

He’s hesitant, a little unsure. “Tell me when to stop,” he whispers, and she doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t  _ want  _ it to stop, doesn’t want the tightrope they’re walking to snap and drop them into depths neither is prepared for. She doesn’t want it to stop because Kakashi feels good. Kakashi feels  _ right.  _

Kakashi  _ feels,  _ and she’s grateful for the chance to take in the way his breath shakes as he kisses her throat.

“I’ve dreamed of this,” he admits quietly. “Us. You. Me.”

“In the middle of the woods?” Sakura asks, laying her head back against his shoulder.

“In all manner of places, really,” he says. “The woods, a hotel room, my bed...mostly my bed.” 

“What do you think about me in your bed, Kakashi?” Sakura knows her voice is thin, breathless, but with the way Kakashi’s beginning to kiss harder she doesn’t feel the need to do anything but surrender. “Did you ever manage to figure out how good it would  _ actually  _ feel to touch me?”

He groans, and she feels his tongue flick out against her pulse. It trails up, burning hot, until his lips skirt over the shell of her ear. “I’ve got to say it’s come pretty close,” he says, “but do you know the one thing that was missing?”

“What?”

“I could never quite figure out the way you’d ask me to be with you,” he murmurs, and Sakura could die happy to the feeling of him pulling her ever-closer. “Didn’t expect you to hit me and call me names, I’ll tell you what.”

“You held out on me for a year, Kakashi, I stand by that was well deserved.” She crosses her arms and sticks her nose in the air, curling back around herself when he threatens to tickle her. “Don’t you dare,” she threatens. “I’m not responsible for the damages.”

“All right, all right,” he soothes.

She relaxes when he begins the slow brush of lips on her neck again. 

“Maybe later.”

“Only if you want your bedroom destroyed,” she says, and he’s got an eyebrow raised when she looks back. “Not that way.”

“Hmm, but then I’d have a project to do with you.” Kakashi settles both hands over Sakura’s navel, fingertips brushing  _ just  _ above where she wants them most. He doesn’t dip them any lower, though, choosing instead to tuck her close and focus his attentions on peppering every available inch of her shoulder with kisses. “Just you--” a kiss to her jaw-- “and me--” her nape-- “and rebuilding my house.” His stopping point is the mark he’d left their first night out of town, and she whines when he seems intent to simply sit and examine it.

“We can have other projects,” she says. 

“Promise?”

Sakura turns then, puts her arm around his shoulder so they’re nose-to-nose. There’s a flush spreading across his face, and she tracks it with her eyes as it flows down across his chest. “I promise, Kakashi.”

His mouth is on hers before the last letters of his name fade into the night. One arm braces her back and the other slips lower, and he moans when his fingers find her wet and wanting. She kisses him back with the same intensity, nails digging into his skin when his tongue traces along the seam of her lips. They part in an almost silent groan, a small broken noise escaping before he steals the oxygen from her lungs. 

Kissing Kakashi on a normal day is, in a word, intense. Kissing Kakashi when he’s intent on making every move count, well… Sakura gasps when he lifts her and settles her over his thighs. 

“I want that,” he mumbles. “I want you. All of it. I want all of you. I--” He pauses, blush deepening as he seemingly thinks better of what he was going to say. 

If it were any other day, another way, Sakura would push him up against the nearest wall and demand to hear it. But it’s not, it’s just the sacred simplicity of them and the lamp and the fireflies outside, so she settles for pulling him into an embrace so warm she hopes he never forgets she feels the same. “Ever since Snow,” she says.

“Ever since Snow,” Kakashi says with a smile. The smile fades when she pulls his hands back to her, fingers linked as she guides him to where she wants to be touched. It transforms into lips parted with desire, pressed hot against her chest as he allows himself to be shown. 

She doesn’t make an effort to work toward an orgasm, content to just be touched and bask in Kakashi’s affections. After a few minutes, he presses up on his knees and lays her gently on the mussed bedrolls. “I want to touch you too, Kakashi,” she whispers.

“Patience,” he says. “I’m not like you, you know. Get your hands on me now and--” he pulls their hips together, the flushed head of his cock just peeking out from the junction as his eyes shut in rapture-- “shit, Sakura, might not be enough time to fuck you like you deserve.”

“I don’t care about what I deserve,” she says. “We’ve got time for that.”

“But  _ I _ care.” His fingers dance over her thighs as he takes his bottom lip between his teeth. “Give me the chance to learn you first.” He pauses, shuts his eyes as if in contemplation as he gently pushes himself against her. His sigh is ethereal, his hands clenching rhythmically with every second he takes to center himself. “Let me give you everything.”

**

Below him, she shudders. Her legs wrap around his and pull him in so he pitches forward, falling onto his hands to rest above her. “Yes,” she says, and surrender sounds  _ sinful _ on her lips. “Yes, Kakashi.” As her hands card through his hair, nails tracing down along the lines of his back, it’s not for the first time he considers that she’s the one he wants to do this with  _ every  _ night.

It’s her he wants to hold him at the end of a long day, her hands he wants to soothe away the stress that so often makes his muscles ache. It’s her that he wants to spend lazy nights on the couch with, curled in a blanket with not a care in the world past where he wants to touch her next. It’s her he wants to grow, heal with in the midst of their new alliances.

It’s  _ her,  _ and he thanks every god that she is now his.

“Ahh,” she groans as he brings a hand to cradle her breast. “Y-your mouth, honey, put your mouth on me.”

His already more-than interested cock gives a small jerk at the request, and he feels every bit an adolescent again as a bead of precome lands on Sakura’s stomach. There’s a stray thought that maybe he should ask her if she  _ really  _ wants to get her hands on him, maybe he should wonder after if she wants to  _ taste  _ him. He pauses to slide a finger through it but before he can ask, she’s pushing his head down with one hand and bringing his hand up with the other.

Her mouth  _ burns  _ around his fingers, tongue slipping between the two digits as she stares him down. Kakashi could lose himself in the jade sea if she let him, but she doesn’t, and he forces his gaze down to the supple skin of her chest before letting his tongue tease over a pebbled nipple. 

The way she cries for him is unforgettable.

It’s guttural, slightly tamped around the intrusion of his fingers, but it’s the sound of Sakura deep in the heat of the moment. 

_ “Kakashi.”  _

Breath leaves him in a hiss, rushing over sweat-slicked skin as his jaw drops. He’s struck with a sudden feeling of urgency, need searing through his veins when she wraps her lips around the base of his fingers and  _ sucks.  _ Kakashi had plans, so many plans, but they all disappear like smoke under a fan at the feeling of her hands raking down his spine.

_ “Make me yours.” _

He’s not sure if the desire he’s drowning in will make this easier or harder. His fingers leave a wet trail as he brings them down, pressing both into her soaking heat. Their gasp is one and the same as he rubs his thumb over her clit, and he gives a short whine when her weapon-forged fingers wrap around his cock. Her other hand slides up to fist in the blankets above him, twisting and turning in the fabric as she writhes under his touch.

Desperation fills the air between them, consumes them. He could live in this moment forever, memorizing every curve and scar and noise, but she’s giving him the same treatment and he knows if she doesn’t stop, there won’t be anything more to give. “Sakura,” he says, voice cracking, “hang on a second.”

Her eyes crack open and he watches as questions flit through their depths. Finally, she settles on one as he’s fumbling around with one hand in his pack to look for the condom he  _ swears  _ was there when he set it down. “What’s the matter?”

“I-we need the-the-the--”  _ Fuck,  _ when had speaking gotten so difficult? He twirls his free hand in irritation. “Uh, lost it…”

“Shhh.” Sakura takes his face in her hands, centers him. “What are you looking for?”

_ Eternity. _

Kakashi pauses, regroups his thoughts in the seconds after she asks. He begins the search again, methodically going through pockets as he marks along her shoulder. “This,” he says, smiling in relief when his fingers find the familiar foil. 

When he holds it up, she flushes a deeper crimson. “I didn’t even think about that.”

“That’s why I’m the lead,” he teases.

“Sure, Kakashi,” she says. She snatches it out of his hands and before he knows it, he’s on the ground with his legs trapped below her. “Always in charge, aren’t you?”

He’s positive he’s never felt as exposed, as  _ lewd  _ as he does now. Looking down and seeing his cock dripping onto his stomach is somehow more pornographic than anything he’s seen, yet still Sakura remains. “Almost always,” he says, swallowing a stutter. When she inches forward to grind against him, he swears the stars lighting the sky fall through his vision. “Gods, Sakura.” Propriety is thrown out the window,  _ sanity  _ is thrown out to be strewn across the grass when the wrapper rips and she bends to take him ever-so-gently in her mouth.

It’s a quiet noise, the one that she makes around him, but to Kakashi it is everything he’s ever wanted. Pleased, loving, hungry and sated tangle in the same breath and as she looks up at him through the softest pink lashes, Kakashi knows that he’s been irrevocably changed by wanting her.

_ Loving _ her.

He’ll never be the same again and that’s  _ okay, more than _ as she hums once then works her lips up his body to kiss him as she rolls the condom over him. When she sinks onto him with a sigh, he swears his heart stops. Their eyes meet, sea and storm tangling in the night, and then it beats again. Once, twice, three times before a violent shiver rips through Sakura’s body.

“You feel so good,” she murmurs. Her hips roll, her fingers digging into the muscle of his chest as she begins to ride him. “Good, honey, so... _ fucking  _ good.”

Kakashi knows he has to be leaving bruises on her hips. He’s hanging on for his life, clinging to the woman who’s captured his mind, body, and whatever scraps of soul he’s got left. When a broken, breathless whine tumbles from her lips, he stops holding back. He stops her, tucks her close, and then he’s looking down at her pinched brow and kiss-bitten lips in wonder as he hooks an elbow behind one of her knees. 

_ “Kakashi- _ -hah,  _ yes,”  _ she moans, burying her face in his shoulder as he presses into her. “Mmn, gods, yes, there--”

The way she clenches around him when he works his free hand between them to stroke over her is overwhelming. It takes all that he has, all his training to keep himself in check. He slows, and Sakura’s hands scrabble over his back in a desperate attempt to make him move once more. “Wait,” he murmurs. 

“Fuck me,” she begs.

He does. Slowly, almost painfully so, he grinds into her, continuing to work her higher and higher with his fingers while he revels in her every noise. The way she tightens around him nearly kills him, he swears, but he continues. Red blooms across her chest with every kiss, every bite, every way he shows her that she  _ matters  _ to him. 

When she comes, he lets the walls holding everything back crumble. Kakashi lets her leg fall and embraces her,  _ finally  _ allowing himself to chase the release he’s kept just out of reach. A bead of sweat rolls down his back and stings the scratches she’s made but that’s all right, because when she asks him to come for her, it’s an angel’s command.

He does that too, and everything is right in the world.

They come down together, Kakashi resting over her with shaky limbs and looking down so he doesn’t miss a single second. Small shocks travel through her, and she holds his face with lightly trembling fingers before leaning up for a kiss. “Kakashi,” she whispers, and his name has never sounded so sweet.

“Sakura…” He doesn’t know what to say, if he  _ should  _ say anything. Maybe if they lay in silence, the rest of the earth will fall away and it’ll be them together forever. Kakashi sighs as he slips out of her, falling to rest on his side to kiss along her shoulder. He settles for that, and Sakura seems content to stroke along his spine as they bask in the moment.

When he eventually does move, gets up and cleans himself, she presses up on her elbows and simply watches. “We’ve got to do that again when we get back,” she says.

“Do we?” Kakashi takes on last look at her spread legs before fishing through the pile for her clothes and tossing her underwear back. “Funny--” he taps his chin and looks to the ceiling-- “I was thinking the same thing.”

“So in tune,” she says, and holds her arms out once she’s dressed. 

“Maybe I’m just easy to figure out,” Kakashi says. He sinks into the heat of her embrace, skims his hand along her stomach before curling into her side. “What about that?”

“Oh, you’re anything  _ but  _ easy.” Sakura snorts and kisses his forehead, and he grins. “Making me wait all this time, with your moaning and groaning about ‘maa, Sakura, not yet.’”

Kakashi pokes her for that one. “Careful, I’ll tell Tsunade you’re being incredibly rude to me.”

“And what’ll she think when I tell her you deserved every bit of it?”

“Her precious Kakashi doesn’t deserve this  _ horrible  _ treatment,” he whines, but smooths over the spot before lacing their fingers together and bringing their knuckles to his lips. “Maybe I’ll tell her all you’ve done is tease me the entire trip. I’m not above making myself look bad.”

“I’ve seen you with bedhead, honey, and you still don’t look half as bad as Tsunade with a hangover.” Sakura’s arm tightens over his shoulder before she pulls away and turns to face him. “You don’t scare me.”

Kakashi nuzzles against her cheek. “I suppose that means you won’t be running away anytime soon then, either?”

“Mm, not a chance.”

“Not even if I…” He kisses her nose, then her forehead as he contemplates, and she lights up. “I don’t know. Too much effort to figure something out.”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” she murmurs, tilting her face forward to rest against his. “I’m yours, Hatake Kakashi, and you’re not letting me go.”

**

Time flies, as it does, from the second they step from the tent the next morning. The trip back to Konoha is over in seconds, and seconds stretch to months that pass as minutes. Over time, Sakura and Kakashi fall into an easy routine of work, sleep, and figuring out this new burgeoning thing between them. There’s a give and take to their relationship that wasn’t there before and while it is at times frustrating, Sakura knows it’s worth it.

He always has been.

She sits in a corner booth in a crowded bar with Shikamaru one night, idly twirling the liquid in her glass as they catch up. He’s waiting for some unknown person and she’s more than curious to find out who it is. He’s always been private about these things.

“Tall?” she asks.

“Not particularly.”

“Pretty?”

“Enough.”

Sakura turns to the door when it opens, settling back on Shikamaru when she sees Izumo coming in to make a beeline to Kotetsu. “Is she…” The door opens again and Shikamaru perks up. When she looks back, Kakashi’s got his arm around someone’s shoulder and they’re both laughing. The long brown hair peeking from the hood of a sweatshirt is unfamiliar, and she narrows her eyes in concentration. “I don’t recognize her.”

“Because he’s not a her.” Shikamaru gets up with a smile and rescues whoever it is from Kakashi, pressing a kiss to their cheek before the hood gets tossed back and it’s Iruka staring at her. 

Whoever she’d expected, it wasn’t him.

Her jaw drops when Iruka leans in for a kiss, and Kakashi taps it shut when he comes to sit next to her. “You’re staring.”

“I’m taking it all in.”

Kakashi leans down to whisper in her ear. “Didn’t get enough of that last night?” he purrs.

“Suck it, Kakashi,” she says, melting into his side. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He was under strict orders,” Iruka says. 

“We prefer to keep things quiet,” Shikamaru says. “Otherwise it’s all troublesome.” 

Sakura stares between the two of them as the next round is ordered. “I’m blaming it on being busy at the hospital,” she says. “No time to snoop.”

Shikamaru clicks his tongue and looks over her head, unimpressed. “Not much to snoop  _ about.  _ Shouldn’t you know better by now?”

“You  _ were  _ always curious,” Iruka murmurs. He cocks one side of his mouth up as Sakura huffs indignantly. “Consider it revealed, now.”

The waitress comes back and passes out the drinks, and Shikamaru huddles into Iruka as cheering erupts across the bar. “Don’t make it weird,” he says.

“Maa, no weirder than Iruka looked at me when I told him about what that poor tent bore witness to,” Kakashi chuckles, wincing at Sakura’s finger between his ribs. “His face, Sakura!” He does his best behind the mask, and even Shikamaru cracks a smile at the evident shock. “‘Kakashi, you can’t do that,’ he said, and the very next day I find out he’s already f--”

“Full of love for my partner,” Iruka quickly interrupts. 

“Full of something,” Shikamaru says.

“Full of shit,” Kakashi says, and the table laughs in unison. “Is it so hard to imagine, Sakura?” He cards his fingers through the hair on her nape as she shivers with the sensation. “After all, it’s been a while. Hasn’t it, Iruka?”

“It’s your fault, too,” Shikamaru says over the rim of his glass. “We bonded over your pining.”

“I wasn’t--” Sakura begins.

Iruka’s glass hits the table as he leans into Shikamaru, absolutely shaking with laughter. “I’ve never seen two people so insistent on  _ not  _ being together,” he manages. “Dear god, the  _ eye fucking  _ going on in the hokage offices. How you never managed to catch Kakashi staring at you is a mystery, Sakura.”

“And you,” Shikamaru says, pointing at Kakashi, “should’ve known better than ‘you need protection.’”

“I’m good protection!” Sakura protests.

“The best,” Kakashi agrees. His hand drops to caress the side of her hip, rubbing circles as the conversation turns to work and life. Sakura lets everything go, settling into Kakashi’s side the same way Shikamaru clings to Iruka. Kakashi and Iruka make their jokes, and Shikamaru grumbles as always, and Sakura thinks that really, there’s no place that feels more like home.

Iruka’s the one who suggests getting home first. It’s just after Kakashi tells Shikamaru he should know better than to expect him to not bring a book to work, and Shikamaru sighs and says he knows. “I suppose it’s better than a jar of sake,” he says.

“I could be doing worse,” Kakashi says, arching his brow.

“Oh, trust me, I know bad things to be done over a desk,” Shikamaru snickers.

Sakura squeaks. “Iruka!”

“Yes?”

“You’re-you-ugh,” she says, waving a hand in the air. “You’re supposed to be the wholesome one here!”

“He’s got holes,” Shikamaru says.

She flushes at that, certain Kakashi can feel the heat radiating from her face as it sinks in. “Shame on both of you, I swear.”

“Is it any worse than a few weeks ago, when I had you sat on my desk and all but screaming?” Kakashi murmurs.

“Shame on ALL of you,” Sakura amends, ducking into his side. Kakashi rubs her back soothingly, thumb digging into the spots he’s learned get tense from long days of being on her feet. “Men.” She shakes her head. “Bunch of weirdos.”

“Yeah, well this weirdo--” Iruka puts his arm around Shikamaru and Sakura’s not really sure who he’s talking about-- “needs to get to bed before school in the morning.” 

Shikamaru’s smile as he buries his face into Iruka’s neck is nothing short of heavenly, as is the light dusting of pink spreading across his cheeks. “My place?”

“Always,” Iruka says.

“We should be getting home, too,” Kakashi says. His hand slips lower, teasing at the waist of her skirt. “Lots to do.”

He can’t mean anything but her. “Right,” she says distractedly. “Lots of things to prepare for the hospital tomorrow.”

Shikamaru gives her a knowing smile. “We’ll have to get together again sometime,” he says, waving them away. “See you both later.” 

Kakashi sends her out the door while he pays. When he walks out, head swinging back and forth before he sees her leaning against the wall, she extends a hand. “A weirdo, am I?” he growls into her neck. There’s no one around to bear witness to the way he stealthily tugs his mask down and slants his lips across hers. “You certainly don’t mind.”

“Never.” Sakura is left panting when Kakashi pulls away. “Lots to do?”

“Iruka was telling us about the new harness Shikamaru bought him and I was thinking about yours and how good it would look tonight,” Kakashi says. He pouts the slightest bit as he presses her against the brick, twirling a piece of her hair as she palms his hardening cock. “Want to?”

“You know I do,” she whispers. 

“My place, ten minutes?”

“It’s a date.” Sakura kisses him before walking toward her apartment, flickering away when she’s out of view. When she arrives in her room, she nearly stumbles over the pile of clothes in the middle of the floor in her hurry to get to the dresser. Black leather disappears into her bag before she stops, torn between the light pink of her favorite dildo and the deep teal of Kakashi’s. “Fuck it,” she mutters, and packs both.

He’s waiting for her at the gate. “I have been a very,  _ very  _ bad boy,” he says, dancing away before she can get a sharp smack in on his ass. “Got to be taken care of, you know?”

“You are  _ such _ a shit,” she laughs. “Get in the house.”

“Yes, dear.” 

She doesn’t bother putting her shoes neatly on the rack, nor does she stop to unpack her bag properly. That falls to the floor along with both their clothes before Kakashi’s scrambling backwards on his bed, fumbling for the lube before he shoves it into her hand. “Needy tonight, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been dying ever since this morning and you weren’t in bed when I woke up,” he gasps. “Please, Sakura.”

“Get on your knees and finger yourself,” she orders. “This is all--” She holds up the harness in way of explanation, and he nods. The straps don’t want to cooperate--though she supposes it might be the way she’s distracted by the way Kakashi’s moaning her name--and she grunts in frustration before taking a deep breath and trying again. It’s easier this time. “You always look so pretty like this,” she says, spreading him open with her hands. “Ask for it.”

“Get inside me,” he says, and his broken sigh is music to her ears. “I need you.”

Sakura does exactly that. She blankets him, lazily thrusting against him until he’s crying for more. When she gives it, it’s only a short time before he’s coming in thick stripes over her hand. He lays, sated and breathing hard as she brings herself off in front of him. His lids hang heavy with the remainder of lust as she runs a tongue through the puddle on her palm. “Mm, you like that?” she purrs. 

He nods eagerly.

“Good man,” she says, bending down to press their lips together. “Stay here and I’ll clean you up, hon.”

Kakashi grabs for her hand as she slips off in search of a towel, eyes darting over her face. “I love you,” he blurts, all in one word. 

“You--” Sakura blinks. “Love? Me?”

He sinks into the sheets, hiding his face in the pillow with only one eye peeking out. “Yes?”

“Oh, Kakashi,” she breathes. The mattress dips below her knees as she leans over him. “You’ve been waiting a while to say that, haven’t you?”

“It’s, um, okay if you don’t say it too,” he says, swallowing hard.

“Now why would I do that?” Sakura brushes her nose across his pinkening cheek, carefully presses a kiss to his temple. “I love you too,” she whispers. “Have for a long time.”

Shuddering, he wraps a hand around her neck and draws her lips to his once more. “I’m glad.”

“Who else would give back all the shit you give them?” she teases.

He beams. “Not anyone I know.  _ Maybe _ Iruka.”

“Ahh, he’s taken. Besides, I think silver and pink looks better than silver and brown.” Sakura taps his nose with her clean hand and leaves for real this time, washing Kakashi’s release from her hand and undoing the harness. She lets it sit for a second in favor of leaning with arms crossed against the door, watching Kakashi watching her. He’s got the same satisfied smile he gets every time he’s figured out a problem, and she cocks her head in question. “What’s the look for?”

“Because I finally said it.”

“Say it again,” she says with a smile.

Kakashi motions her over and stands. “I love you,” he says slowly. One arm slides around her shoulders and the other around her waist, and it feels like heaven. “You…” He hums then, a little off key, but to Sakura it’s beautiful as they sway in the middle of his room. “You’re the best.”

“Mm, don’t you forget it,” Sakura murmurs into his chest. “Okay if I sleep here for the night?”

“Always.”

Sakura kisses him before breaking away to prepare for sleep, and they go through their routines together. When they’re finally huddled together under the blankets, she hugs him close. “You know what we’re doing tomorrow?”

“Working and then...I don’t know.”

“Bribing Iruka into telling us things.”

Kakashi snorts and turns over in her arms, making sure she stays plastered to his back. “I’m not paying for all the ramen that’ll take, I hope you realize that.”

“Some, at least?” she asks, pleading.

“Two bowls,” he concedes. “No more.”

“I think that makes  _ you  _ the best,” she says. “To bed, though. We can love each other in the morning.”

**Author's Note:**

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